The San Diego Padres' ongoing quest for a World Series (or at least a playoff title). "You know that many runners enter a race, but only one of them wins the prize. So run to win! Athletes work hard to win a crown that cannot last, but we do it for a crown that will last forever." 1 Corinthians 9:24-25

Bookended By Failure

There were two defining moments in tonight’s game: the beginning and the end. But the rest of the game stank too.

Alberto Gonzalez expresses his frustration after striking out in Monday's game against the Colorado Rockies. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Coming off of three straight wins against the Nationals over the weekend, the Rockies came to town and dispelled any hope that Padres fans might have mustered.

After Carlos Gonzalez struck out to start the game, Chris Nelson tripled and Troy Stinking Tulowitzki singled him in for the Rockies’ first run of the game. That was the bad beginning.

The score stayed one-nothing Rockies for the rest of the game, at least until the top of the ninth. Of course, if the Padres hadn’t overcome that daunting lead all game long, they probably wouldn’t be able to overcome it in the bottom of the ninth, but it’s nice to hope. So it still wasn’t cool that the Padres gave up two more runs to obliterate any chance of coming back.

And in the middle, there were plenty of bad things made this game stink. Including but not limited to:

The fact that we had the same amount of hits as the Rockies did (9), but somehow the Rockies scored three runs and we scored none.

The fact that we left 11 runners on base and were 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

The fact that Clayton Richard threw an amazing game, but got his seventh loss of the year.

The fact that we are a last-place team never helps things either. Sigh.

It was just a sad game. I don’t appreciate it when we lose like that. Oh well.

Tim Stauffer will try to get us some shred of dignity tomorrow night against Ubaldo Jimenez.

First round of the draft was today. The draft has never really excited me because we always get the worst players, but who knows. Congrats to infielder Cory Spangenberg on being the Padres’ first-round draft pick this year. I hope you have better fortune than other recent Padre first-round draft picks.

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